Family photography in Dublin should feel nothing like a school portrait. No one lined up on a step. No one told to say cheese. Just your family, doing what your family does, photographed honestly.
That’s the approach I bring to every session, documentary instincts turned towards the smallest, most ordinary moments: the way your toddler holds your hand, how your partner still makes you laugh after all these years, the chaos of everyone trying to get in the same frame.
What a Family Session Looks Like
Sessions run 45 or 90 minutes and take place at a location that suits you, a favourite park, a beach, your own garden, a place that means something to your family. I follow your lead rather than directing everyone into poses. The goal is photographs that feel like your life, not a photoshoot.
The first 10–15 minutes are always a warm-up, kids especially need time to forget the camera exists. By halfway through, most families have settled into a natural rhythm, and the best photographs usually come in the second half when no one is thinking about it anymore.
The 45-minute Family Session is a simple choice for one location, including younger children. The 90-minute Full Session gives us more room for an extended family, a second location or more variety. We can choose based on the photographs you want and what suits your family, rather than age alone.
Best Family Photography Locations in Dublin
Phoenix Park
Ireland’s largest urban park, 1,752 acres of woodland, open meadow, and walled gardens. The Walled Victorian Garden near the Papal Cross has beautiful light and a contained space that works well with younger children. The woodland around the Furry Glen gives seasonal variety, particularly beautiful in autumn.
Parking at the Papal Cross or Chesterfield Avenue puts you within a short walk of several completely different backdrops, which is why it is the location I suggest most often for a first session.
Killiney Beach and Hill
The combination of the beach and the woodland hill above it gives two completely different settings in one location. The views from Killiney Hill across Dublin Bay and out to the Wicklow Mountains are extraordinary on a clear day. Accessible and photogenic year-round.
Worth knowing: the climb to the obelisk is steeper than it looks on a map. With small children or grandparents in the group, we stay low and use the beach and the lower woodland instead.
St. Anne’s Park, Raheny
One of Dublin’s great hidden parks, the rose garden, the woodland walks, the open parkland beside the sea at Bull Island. St. Anne’s has a variety of backdrops within a compact area and is rarely as busy as the more central parks.
The rose garden peaks in June and again in early September. The avenue of trees near the Red Stables holds up all year and is my fallback when the weather turns.
Howth
The fishing village, the harbour, the cliff walk, the summit. Howth gives families a range from coastal and wild to village and relaxed. The cliff walk at golden hour is stunning; the harbour is full of colour and character at any time of day.
Bull Island and Dollymount Strand
The long, open beach at Dollymount, with the Dublin skyline in the background and the dunes behind, is one of the most underused photography locations in the city. Particularly beautiful at low tide and at golden hour.
Check the tide before booking a Dollymount session. At full tide the beach narrows to almost nothing and the dunes are the only option left.
Your Own Home
For newborn sessions especially, the home is often the right choice, familiar, comfortable, and full of the details that make your family yours. The morning light in the room where the baby sleeps, the chaos of an older sibling meeting a new baby, the quiet moments in the first weeks. These sessions are irreplaceable.
There is a full account of how one of these mornings actually runs, feed, nappy change, big sister and all, in an at-home newborn session in Dublin.
What to Wear
The most common question, and the one people overthink most.
Pick a palette rather than an outfit. Two or three colours that sit near each other, soft neutrals, denim, olive, muted blues, and let everyone dress within it. Matching exactly reads as a uniform; coordinating loosely reads as a family.
Avoid large logos and slogans, they date a photograph faster than anything else in the frame. Avoid tight stripes and small busy patterns, which fight the camera at distance. And dress for the actual weather and the actual ground, because we will be walking, and a family that is cold and wet stops enjoying itself about twenty minutes in.
For children, put them in something they have worn before. A brand-new outfit on the day gives a five-year-old one more thing to object to at precisely the wrong moment.
When to Book
September and October are the best months for family photography in Dublin. The light is warm and low from mid-afternoon, Phoenix Park and St. Anne’s turn colour, and the ground is still firm underfoot. Sessions in this window book out first.
May and June run a close second, long evenings and a golden hour that lasts properly rather than passing in ten minutes.
Winter is better than most people expect. Between November and February the sun never climbs high, so the soft, low light that you wait all summer evening for is available at midday. Book for around noon and you get the good light and warmer children at the same time.
December at home is its own thing. The photograph at the top of this page was taken in a living room in December with nothing rearranged for the camera, and it is one of my favourite family frames.
Sessions Available
Family sessions, couples, families of any size, extended families. 45 or 90 minutes. More on the family sessions page.
Newborn sessions, ideally in the first two weeks, though sessions run to six weeks and beyond and an awake baby gives you a different set of photographs rather than a lesser one. At your home. Relaxed and unhurried. More on the newborn session page.
Maternity sessions, typically between 28–34 weeks. Outdoors or at home depending on your preference. More on the maternity session page.
Children’s milestone sessions, first birthday, first year, any occasion worth marking.
Extended Family and Three Generations
Extended family sessions are worth planning deliberately, because they are usually the only occasion when three generations stand in one frame, and nobody thinks to arrange it until somebody is gone.
Tell me the numbers when you book. Ten people need a different location from four, a background that holds together at width, ground that a grandparent can stand on comfortably, and somewhere to sit between groups. Phoenix Park’s walled garden and the parkland at St. Anne’s both take a large group without the photographs turning into a queue.
I shoot the full group early, while everyone is still fresh and nobody has wandered to the car, then break down into smaller combinations: each family unit, the grandparents with all the grandchildren, the siblings on their own. The full group photograph is the one that gets printed, so it does not get left to the end.
Family Photography Prices in Dublin
Two sessions, both including the images.
The Family Session, €350. Forty-five minutes at one location, around 40 edited images, private online gallery, full resolution with no watermarks, travel included across the Greater Dublin Area.
The Full Session, €500. Ninety minutes across up to two locations, around 80 edited images, and room for the children to change outfits partway through. Choose this for an extended family, a second location or more variety.
There are no print packages waiting at the other end and no per-image charges. The full-resolution files are delivered with full print rights, which means you can print them, share them and hand them to whoever you like.
Full detail is on the family pricing page, and the family photographer Dublin page covers the sessions themselves.
Delivering the Images
Edited images are delivered via a private online gallery within 3–4 weeks. Full resolution, no watermarks, with full print rights, yours to download, print, and share however you like.
The gallery stays live for 12 months. I always recommend downloading everything promptly and keeping a copy on your own device.
See family photography pricing or get in touch to check availability and talk through your ideas.